Investment insight: what would combined Aberdeen/SLI look like?

The coming together of two of European asset management’s largest groups would result in a veritable colossus.

Their combined £660 billion in assets would move them into the big leagues and put them just outside the world’s top 20 in assets under management.

Across both groups there are a total of 128 fund managers tracked by Citywire, active in 91 investment sectors. The combined experience of those managers is just shy of a thousand years (980 years, 10 months).

The talent pool

Looking at their Citywire Ratings it is actually Aberdeen, who in spite of their troubles, are bringing the largest breadth and depth to marriage. Not only in terms of pure ratings, but also in the variety of sectors in which they are active and successful.

Citywire Fund Manager Ratings

Citywire Fund Manager Ratings look at the individual risk-adjusted returns of every manager tracked globally over the past three years and are updated monthly.

With a combined total of 22 ratings it would place them 27th globally for three year risk-adjusted returns until the end of January this year.

The highest rated fund managers are all from Aberdeen, with the top manager AAA-rated Robert Penaloza. However, Penaloza only runs retail money in Australia. Making him niche and inaccessible to most.

Manager

Rating

Group

Citywire Sector

Contributing Funds

Robert Penaloza

AAA

Aberdeen

Equities - Australia

Aberdeen Australian Equities

Equities - Australia Small & Medium Companies

Aberdeen Australian Small Companies

Equities - Australia

Aberdeen Ex-20 Australian Equities

Joseph McFadden

AA

Aberdeen

Equities - US Small & Medium Companies

Aberdeen US Small Cap Equity Fund

Adrian Lim

AA

Aberdeen

Equities - Asia Pacific Excluding Japan

Aberdeen Asia-Pacific (Ex-Japan) Equity Fund

David Cumming

A

SLI

Equities - UK (All Companies)

Standard Life Inv UK Equity Recovery

Douglas Burtnick

A

Aberdeen

Equities - US

Aberdeen US Multi-Cap Equity Fund

Equities - US Small & Medium Companies

Aberdeen US Small Cap Equity Fund

Jason Kotik

A

Aberdeen

Equities - US

Aberdeen US Multi-Cap Equity Fund

Equities - US Small & Medium Companies

Aberdeen US Small Cap Equity Fund

Ralph Bassett

A

Aberdeen

Equities - US

Aberdeen American Opportunities

Equities - US

Aberdeen Global - North American Equity

Equities - US Small & Medium Companies

Aberdeen Global - North American SmCos

Equities - US

Aberdeen North American Equity

Equities - US

Aberdeen US Multi-Cap Equity Fund

Equities - US Small & Medium Companies

Aberdeen US Small Cap Equity Fund

Samantha Lamb

A

SLI

Bonds - Emerging Markets Global Corporates

SLI Glo SICAV Emerging Market Corporate Bd

Wolfgang Kuhn

+

Aberdeen

Bonds - Euro Corporates

Aberdeen Global II - Euro Corporate Bond

Fiona Gillespie

+

Aberdeen

Mixed Assets - Aggressive GBP

Aberdeen Multi-Asset

Lyndon Gill

+

Aberdeen

Equities - UK Equity Income

SW Multi-Manager UK Equity Income

Chern-Yeh Kwok

+

Aberdeen

Equities - Japan

Aberdeen Global - Japanese Equity

Equities - Japanese Small & Medium Companies

Aberdeen Global - Japanese Smaller Comp

Harry Nimmo

+

SLI

Equities - UK Smaller Companies

Standard Life Inv UK Smaller Companies

Kieran Curtis

+

SLI

Bonds - Emerging Markets Global Local Currency

SLI Glo SICAV EM Local Curr Debt

Bonds - Emerging Markets Global Corporates

SLI Glo SICAV Emerging Market Corporate Bd

Matthew Davies

+

Aberdeen

Mixed Assets - Flexible GBP

Aberdeen Capital

Michael Turner

+

Aberdeen

Mixed Assets - Balanced GBP

Aberdeen Diversified Income

Mixed Assets - Aggressive GBP

Aberdeen Multi-Asset

Next on the list is the highly impressive AA-rated Joseph McFadden who co-manages the Aberdeen US Smaller Companies fund with Ralph Bassett.

This is unquestionably one of the best US smaller companies portfolios in the world. Over the past five years the duo rank 8/604 managers globally on a risk-adjusted basis, which puts them in the 98th percentile in this highly competitive sector.

Then we get to AA-rated Asian equity specialist Adrian Lim. While Aberdeen’s veteran fund manager Hugh Young has been through a torrid run of performance over the past five years in the same field, Lim has consistently stayed ahead of the benchmark.

Following Lim is Standard Life Investments (SLI) top rated fund manager, A-rated David Cumming. As manager of the group’s UK Equity Recovery fund he has consistently outperformed the benchmark and only failed to receive a monthly rating three times since September 2013.

Veterans' day

Hugh Young is the longest serving manager across either group with nearly 30 years as named fund manager in Asian equities.

He is the individual with the most experience in active in this sector, following last week’s announcement that Stewart Investor’s Angus Tulloch is set to retire.

While recent performance hasn’t been great, Young more than anyone is responsible for making Aberdeen what is today.

Following him are a clutch of SLI managers in UK centric equity sectors. Susan Tarry in Europe excluding UK, Karen McKellar in UK all companies and the renowned Harry Nimmo in UK smaller companies.

Rounding out the top 10 in the longevity stakes are Aberdeen’s mixed asset manager Simon Wood and global emerging market stalwart Devan Kaloo.

Greater than a sum of its parts

Next up we take a look at the combined groups Citywire Group Ratings. These look at performance of every manager in a sector over a seven year period and reward consistency and longevity.

Again Aberdeen are bring the lion’s share to equation with a greater number of group ratings. Though neither group currently has a platinum rating awarded to the top 5% of groups in each sector.

Group Ratings Breakdown

Fixed Income

Sector

Rating

Group

Emerging Markets Global Hard Currency

Silver

SLI

Europe High Yield

Bronze

Aberdeen

Equities

Sector

Rating

Group

Asia Pacific Excluding Japan

Silver

SLI

Asia Pacific Including Japan

Bronze

Aberdeen

China

Gold

SLI

Emerging Markets Europe

Silver

Aberdeen

Global

Silver

SLI

Global Emerging Markets

Gold

Aberdeen

Global Emerging Markets Smaller Companies

Bronze

Aberdeen

India

Bronze

Aberdeen

Japanese Small & Medium Companies

Bronze

Aberdeen

Latin America

Silver

Aberdeen

Natural Resources

Bronze

Aberdeen

UK Equity Income

Bronze

SLI

US Small & Medium Companies

Gold

Aberdeen

Mixed Assets

Sector

Rating

Group

Absolute Return GBP

Bronze

Aberdeen

Balanced GBP

Bronze

SLI

Conservative GBP

Bronze

SLI

At an individual sector level the bias towards equity markets is clear with just two ratings awarded for fixed income; for performance in hard currency emerging market debt and European high yield

In equity markets it is perhaps surprising to see SLI awarded a rating for Asia Pacific Excluding Japan, which has for so long been Aberdeen’s bread and butter.

This has been achieved in the main by William Malcolm manager of the Standard Life Inv Asian Pacific Growth and Standard Life Inv Pacific Basin funds and who ranks 48/137 managers globally for his risk-adjusted returns over the past five years.

The standout ratings are the Golds received in China by SLI and in Global Emerging Markets and US Smaller Companies by Aberdeen.

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